Disciple of Dracula
by PlusSizeAngel
Summary: Sequel to 1960 Brides of Dracula. Gothic fantasy adventure, set in richly Technicoloured fairytale Transylvania of Hammer Universe.
1. Chapter 1

Transylvania, 1885

"Marianne, you got yet another present," Frau Lang said and put the simple brown package on the parlor table.

Marianne Danielle, looking lovely and blooming like a rose with her red hair and lilac gown, smiled to Abraham Van Helsing and walked to Frau Lang.

"Who sent it?"

Frau Lang looked the beautiful card patterned with violets.

_"From a dear friend, M", _she read.

"Mysterious," Marianne said and started to tear the paper away.

Gorgeous gown of crimson satin and black lace, completed with veil, unfolded in all of it´s mature lushness.

"How lovely!" Marianne said. "Like a wedding-dress in different colours... look at that veil!"

"It is too voluptuous size to slender girl like you. "Frau Lang said. "And wedding-dress must always be pure white."

"This is pure," Marianne laughed. "It is dazzlingly clean."

Van Helsing smiled to them, the idyll of cozy home life, but suddenly his expression changed. He walked to the table and tore the card to himself.

Crimson, Gothic M told to him eveything he needed to know.

"What is it?" Marianne asked.

"Meinster send that to you."

"But..."

"Frau Lang, could I speak with my betrothed alone."

"Of course." Frau Lang walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"What is it?" Marianne asked, still holding the dress.

Van Helsing showed the card.

"We did not find Meinster´s body," he said. "Village men I sent to search it for proper Christian burial did not find anything."

"What do you mean?"

Van Helsing took Marianne´s hand and kissed it.

"I assume that Gina and that other girl did not die when the windmill was burned," he said. "They escaped and took Meinster´s body with them."

Marianne stared at him. "But how did they... resurrect him?"

"By blood and magic." Van Helsing watched when Marianne´s amber eyes were widened. "One of the village children is missing."

"Marianne clinged to him.

"Then let´s leave Academy, now. We can´t endanger Herr and Frau Lang and the girls! We must leave and try to lure Meinster to the trap."

Van Helsing made quickly his decision. "Start to pack, Marianne. I search carriage and horses to us." When Marianne was turning away, Van Helsing took his hand to his own. "And keep your cross near you. I call Frau Lang to be with you."


	2. Chapter 2

The inn where Van Helsing and Marianne stopped was clean and, in the way of the country, decorated with garlic. They chose borsch, coffee and wine and sat on the free table.

Marianne, dressed in beautiful red walking-gown and cape, tasted her borsch. "Delicious!" she said.

Van Helsing poured rich ruby-red wine to the glasses. "I would like to ask something." he said softly.

"What?"

"Do you miss him? You two were engaged."

Marianne looked at her soup. "I am quite a serial engagist, am I?" She sighed. "He wasn´t what I thought him to be. I let him free from his mother´s chains and he killed all those people, even his own mother!"

"He used your purity and innocence of his own advantage," Van Helsing said.

"I thought he was innocent, too!" Marianne said with such passion that it made Van Helsing to smile. "At first I thought he was ill of his mind and then that her mother wanted to stole his property..."

"Seeing a human being in chains SHOULD cause alarm," Van Helsing said. "Marianne, Meinster desires revenge, badly. Never forget your cross. We can spend a night in this inn, and I can prepare our rooms. Tomorrow we will continue to Klausenburg and my home." He smiled to her over her coffee-cup. "There will be lot of good works for you to do, if you want.

.

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AN: Sorry for short chapter, I have bit of a writing block!


	3. Chapter 3

**This won´t be long chapter, either, but I am slowly moving the story toward the Hammer´s idea of vampire cult and it´s disciples preying Transylvania... **

"You are a doctor, are you not?"

Van Helsing looked up from his morning tea to the portly inn-keeper. "Yes, I am. Do you need help?"

"Well... your coach will not come for hours, and our priest is ill. He is young man, but he was atttacked and wounded to the neck last. It was... well, he is not in very good condition." Inn-keeper changed glances with his wife.

"Was the attacker a vampire?" Van Helsing asked softly.

Inn-keeper hesitated, not knowing what to to say to this well-dressed, soft-spoken man, who clearly was not from the area.

"Don´t understand me wrong," Van Helsing said kindly. "I know vampires are more than superstition. Believe me, I know."

"Well," inn-keeper blurted, "priest said there was young blonde man, dressed in finery, and three women..."

"Three?"

"Yes. One of those women, one with the red dress, bit him."

Van Helsing looked Marianne. "Don´t go out, if the inn is not in fire. I come back so soon I can."

"Be careful, " Marianne said and squeezed his hand.

"I will."

.

.

In her garlic-filled room, Marianne opened her bigger luggage and took something from the bottom. Fabric of red satin and black lace, long red veil over the back like darkly romantic version of bridal gown, shimmered in the oil-lamp light.

_It is too lovely to thrown away. Who cares it is from the vampire? I love Abraham, a man I´m engaged with. It is only a dress..._


	4. Chapter 4

"There is nothing wrong with me! I´m soon at my feet again!"

Young man who was sitting on the bed, tucked with his pillows, was pasty-faced, with shock of dark hair and white shirt matching with his sheets. His voice was annoyed.

Elderly house-keeper spread her hands. "Do you see, Doctor? This is impossible task for me!"

Van Helsing smiled kindly and sat on the bed. He looked the picture on the bedside table - picture of an old lady, surrounded by pearl-frame like she would have been purer than the pure and pearls selected to show it.

"I am doctor and can probably make better judgment of your health than you," Van Helsing said with kind but resolute voice. Young man shot odd glance to him - Van Helsing had seen it before. Young man was changing.

Van Helsing tilted his patient´s head to expose his neck. Two blue bruises, or actually puncture-wounds, marked pallid skin.

"You are indeed soon on your feet again, " Van Helsing said. "Rest, food - especially with good garlic flavour- and port wine make you soon healthy.

He looked the picture on the table.

"Your mother? What a lovely picture."

"She was killed," came the blunt answer. Trauma was clearly there, Van Helsing observed, under the surface. "Group of filthy young... men murdered her."

"I am very sorry," Van Helsing said.

"She was traveling in the city... they kidnapped her. They were Hellfire-like club, but these people really sacrificed people to Satan to get eternal youth."

"And Satan gave them fangs," Van Helsing said.

"What do you mean?" young priest´s face was crafty again.

"Was the man who killed your mother... was he named Meinster?" Van Helsing studied young man´s face carefully.

"One of them was, yes."


End file.
